Wolverine #20 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writing), Renato Guedes (pencils), Jose Wilson Magalhaes (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Someone’s trying to start a war between the Hand and the Yakuza and naturally, Wolverine and Melita find themselves caught in the middle.

The Review:  This issue serves as a nice little cross-section of several of the things that have worked well in Jason Aaron’s tenure on Wolverine.  You’ve got balls to the wall action, Logan’s unique way of fumbling through a romantic relationship, and Aaron’s twisted brand of humour.  While the result doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it does lead to a really fun time that would have you thoroughly entertained for the entirety of its 22 pages and will give you a laugh on several occasions.

Personally, I really appreciated the mish-mash of genres present here, which in itself is another hallmark of Aaron’s run, which has seen him tell a wide variety of Wolverine-related stories.  You’ve got comedy, action, horror characters, crime drama, and ninjas all mixed up together into a potent and quick combination that feels like what a Wolverine comic should be.

Key to this mixture was Aaron’s bringing back a couple of his best Wolverine-related creations: the Buzzard Brothers.  I’d forgotten how absolutely hilarious these guys are.  It’s the twisted sort of stuff that could only come from the Jason Aaron who brought us Ghost Rider.  They’re caricatures straight out of Deliverance and the Hills Have Eyes and while horrific, are also great for a laugh.  They get several great lines and now, having gotten a power upgrade that seems to have made them nearly unkillable, they’re more over-the-top and slapstick than ever.  Seeing these guys show up in the middle of a Kingpin/Yakuza crime drama is mind-bending good fun and while you’d think it’d be jarring, I found myself just sitting back and enjoying the insanity.

And really, the action scenes in this month are just as nutty and over-the-top as the Buzzard Brothers themselves.  We get ninjas, asteroid busting sniper rounds (seriously), and Wolverine doing all manner of bad things to the unkillable Buzzards.  It leads a comic that moves at an incredibly brisk pace that never leaves the reader bored or adrift.

Wolverine #13 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Renato Guedes (pencils), Jose Wilson Magalhaes (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: It always comes down to those damned ninjas.

What’s Good: In another flashback into the past of a “Wolverine victim,” Jason Aaron gives us an inside look into the Hand.  Overall, I enjoyed Aaron’s take on the ninja cult You get your honor-based suicides, your unsettling scenes of children killing each other, but most of all, Aaron adds a very, very unsettling wrinkle to the Hand with the role of its women.  I won’t spoil it, but in both dialogue and….occupation….it’s genuinely disturbing stuff and due to Aaron’s writing of it and Guedes’ unnerving illustration of these women, it may very well be the creepiest thing I’ve read in a major Marvel comic this year.

The art continues to be solid.  Renato Guedes’ action scenes are fast and fun and his illustration on the world of the Hand is appropriately dark with a hint of the grotesque.  His level of detail is rock solid as always and there’s little to complain about, particularly given that Matthew Wilson continues to find the best possible palette for Guedes’ work.

And oh yeah, we get one hell of a cliffhanger as well.  It’s really one of those endings that’ll leave you salivating for the next issue, but without feeling cheap or leaving you feeling cheated.

Secret Warriors #25 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alessandro Vitti (art), IFS (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: The origins of Leviathan are revealed in a team-up of epic proportions.

The Review: Secret Warriors #25 is a very interesting issue, if for no other reason that it once again points to Jonathan Hickman carving his own little corner in the Marvel Universe.  His idiosyncratic SHIELD series bleeds over into Secret Warriors this month, and the result is that much of what makes that series good bleeds over.  That and, at a more basic level, it’s just pretty damned cool seeing Hickman’s hidden city and Leonardo Da Vinci in Secret Warriors.  It even threatens to make SHIELD feel less cryptic and inaccessible in a way, but I digress.  The presence of Da Vinci in particular (though he’s never actually named as such) makes everything seem way heavier and more significant and given the scope of SHIELD, it raises the game, and the stakes, as far as Secret Warriors is concerned.  Given that we’re heading to the series conclusion, that’s definitely a good thing.

As far as the plot goes, this is an issue that really lives up to the “Wheels Within Wheels” moniker.  Seeing all the power players of the Marvel spy-world working together under Da Vinci, regardless of what side they may be on, is damned cool.   Seeing Kraken, Baron Strucker, Fury, and hand ninjas all the same team is awesome and makes their shared goals seem all the more important.  Oh, and you even get to see who’s behind Kraken’s mask.

Unlike what has often been the case with the series, the story is still very large this month, but it’s also focused enough to feel excited about.  The characters are easy to root for, if for nothing but name value, and seeing the birth of Leviathan feels important.  And that’s the meat of it really: this issue feels important, not tangential or digressive.  That’s no small feat given that many of the series characters play no role this month and almost the entire issue is a flashback.  It’s an issue that feels vital and exciting and fully comprehensible, despite the massive and largely unfamiliar cast and the non-linear nature of it.

Shadowland #5 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Billy Tan (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Guru eFx (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The battle for New York City comes to its conclusion.

What’s Good: What, besides the fact that this is the final issue and that this mess of an event is finally over?

In all seriousness, though, my thought while reading this issue was that it could’ve been hell of a lot worse.  The event comes to a nice enough end and the point it leaves Matt at is a nice one and a natural fit for the character that holds hope for future creative teams.  While Shadowland has been many things, few of them good, Daredevil fans can breathe a sigh of relief that no irreparable damage is done to the character and nothing truly catastrophic is inflicted upon the series.

Basically, Shadowland was only ever meant to take Matt from point A to point B.  The story was cobbled together as a means to get him there.  Perhaps that ends up being the reason why this issue ended up being better than I expected.  While not particularly good, it finally shows us what that point B is, which was always probably the most well thought out portion of Shadowland even before we knew what it was.

As a result, the last couple of pages are quite good and very Daredevily, as is his disappearance from Shadowland.

Billy Tan also has some bright spots this month, particularly when it comes to the action scenes.  I loved the battle between Lord Daredevil and Iron Fist.

Daredevil #511 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Roberto De La Torre (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Foggy seeks out Daredevil and Dakota attempts to rescue Becky.

What’s Good: Last month’s Daredevil seemed to finally find itself, deciding to dedicate itself to the tribulations of Daredevil’s buddies Foggy and Dakota, characters who had been utterly neglected and whose perspectives should be invaluable.  Given Daredevil’s uneven quality of late, I wasn’t sure if Diggle would stick with this commitment, but he does.  Daredevil #511 focuses once again on Daredevil’s unique cast of friends and that’s good news in itself.

The end result is a book that feels really moody, desperate, and atmospheric.  It, unlike the main Shadowland series, captures just how dark and insane Hell’s Kitchen has become.  You really get the sense of New York’s devolving into an anarchic hell of indiscriminate and irrational violence and rage.  In so doing, this issue really makes it clear how this is something that Shadowland, the main series, should’ve doing much earlier.  The mood established this month and the depiction of Hell’s Kitchen’s madness and the price of Shadowland’s establishment and the events within are made clear this month, and it’s solid and it makes Shadowland appear all the more lacking by comparison.

De La Torre also continues to crank out great Daredevil art.  It’s dark and gritty as usual, but in capturing the riotous, insane Hell’s Kitchen core, there’s a constant sense of derangement to De La Torre’s art, owing to his rough lines and shading.  Better still, thanks in part to Matt Hollingsworth’s colours, the interiors of Shadowland remove some of the darkness in exchange for an undertone of disease and sickness.

Shadowland #4 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Billy Tan (pencils & inks), Victor Olazaba (inks), Guru eFx (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Izo’s band of heroes race to stop Daredevil as Elektra makes her move.

What’s Good: One of the big problems that the main Shadowland series has had has been finding its identity.  It seems divided on whether to approach this as a standard Marvel event or as a Daredevil comic.   The result has been that as an event, it feels strange and off-kilter while, as a Daredevil comic, it’s a failure.

The good news is that with this issue, I feel like I finally have a clear picture of what Shadowland wants to be, as the book finally settles into being just another Marvel event.  It seems the comic has given up on any loftier aspirations and has more or less given up pretending to be a Daredevil comic.  While this does make for a mediocre comic, at least it means that the book is far less confused and messy than it has been, even if it is a little straightforward.  Certainly, I feel that reader expectations can properly adjust as well.  Shadowland, with this issue, gives up on even attempting to be like the Daredevil comics of old; it’s a Marvel event comic that’s dedicated to getting the character, and the universe, to a particular point.  At least, now, we can know what we’re getting.

If you like action, there’s a lot of action this month and all of it is done fairly well.  Action scenes are fluid, dynamic, and exciting.  A lot of this is due to Billy Tan, who continues to do surprisingly solid work on this comic.

New Avengers #5 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Avengers learn who is behind the mystic attacks and devise a plan to challenge him/it.

What’s Good: By this point, it should go without saying that I’m loving this as a Marvel mystic storyline.  It makes New Avengers feel distinct, it helps bring in some real power players from an arena that is largely ignored.

Focusing on the mystic corner of the Marvel Universe has also brought the best out of Stuart Immonen and Laura Martin, who are able to make the kind of bright, vibrant, Saturday-morning artwork on steroids that they clearly excel at.  New Avengers, even moreso now with all the mystic lights, spells, and blasts, is just downright fun to look at.

This issue’s plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested.  There’s a constant sense of things getting increasingly large, both the story and the villain.  Things keep getting exponentially bigger and by the end of this issue, from a mystic perspective, the conflict is positively massive in scale despite its really only involving one team of Avengers.  Certainly, putting an identity on the bad guy (and it’s a huge one) helps a great deal with this.  Not only is the revelation both interesting and surprising in its gravity, but it also helps to make the story feel more important, something that has been lacking lately what with all the faceless, formless goons the Avengers have been fighting lately.

Daredevil #510 – Review

by Andy Diggle & Antony Johnston (writers), Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Foggy and Dakota find themselves hunted by the Hand while Iron Fist and Luke Cage find themselves swayed by the Kingpin.

What’s Good: One of the things that’s made the last couple of issues of Shadowland, or the last couple of issues of Daredevil for that matter, somewhat underwhelming has been that they’ve tried to focus on too many things at once, winding up feeling insubstantial and mediocre throughout.  Daredevil #510 goes against this trend and is a significant improvement throughout.

Instead of even attempting any half-assed gestures towards focusing on Matt and his shift in character and internal struggles, Daredevil becomes a book focusing on Daredevil’s friends, particularly Dakota and Foggy, a wise choice given that these two are integral to the Daredevil franchise who we don’t get to see in any other book.  This makes this issue feel more meaningful and more necessary.  While I would, of course, rather that Daredevil be devoted to shedding light on Matt’s character, Diggle and Johnston’s decision to focus on Dakota and Foggy at least gives the book a strong direction and a unique one.

It’s ultimately a good choice if only because Dakota and Foggy are naturally sympathetic characters.  Not possessing any superpowers or martial arts prowess, it’s easy to root for them amidst the madness of Shadowland.  When they’re assaulted by a horde of ninjas, the threat feels a lot more real and the danger much more substantial; this isn’t a case of Luke Cage busting the faces of a horde of faceless goons, but rather, this is two people fighting for their lives in a dingy apartment hideout.  Honestly, Dakota and Foggy felt more heroic this month than any other characters have in the entirety of Shadowland.

Shadowland #1 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Billy Tan (pencils), Batt (inks), Christina Strain & Guru EFX (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Bullseye takes on a newer, nastier Daredevil while the Avengers grow increasingly concerned about that weird castle in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen.

What’s Good: As the first issue of an event, one could look at this issue as being a series of great choices by Diggle.  First and foremost is that it isn’t overburdened by a plethora of characters.  It certainly still feels like a Daredevil book, but has the Avengers, Luke Cage and Iron Fist in particular, be just enough or a presence to make things feel different and a little bit bigger.

Then there’s the central role that Bullseye has in this first issue.  I can’t think of a better way of showing how much Matt has changed than having him fight the guy he’s fought a million times.  It’s a wonderful choice by Diggle, who also writes a really great, crazy Bullseye.  It’s clear the dynamic has shifted when readers immediately get the feeling that Bullseye has insanely bitten off more than he can chew by challenging Daredevil.  It’s also quite the turn to see the “hero” be accompanied by a horde of faceless goons, ganging up on the lone villain.  This, of course, was no doubt what Diggle was going for.

That’s really the strongest point of this issue; there’s no doubt, during this issue and particularly at its end, that the Daredevil of Shadowland is a very, very different Daredevil.  He’s mean, he’s isolationist, and he’s darker than ever.  This, of course, is tied into another great choice by Diggle: debuting the new outfit this month, which looks absolutely fantastic and is a great representation of Matt’s shift in mentality.

But really, the best choices Diggle makes in this issue are related to pacing.  There’s no question that he hits the ground running, but we’re also not overwhelmed by breakneck plot progression and chaotic happenstance.  The plot is simple and straightforward, but filled with great action and status quo defining moments.

Then there’s the last page.  Whoa.  It’s the sort of cliffhanger that you suspect is coming, but can’t actually believe Diggle went for until you flip the page.  Just whoa.  It’s a major character death that gets Shadowland off to an explosive start while hammering home that this is a whole new DD.

I was also very much surprised by Billy Tan’s artwork, which was really solid stuff.  I thought his work was ill-suited to Daredevil after his work on the List one-shot, but this definitely worked.  His style is detailed, but seems a little grittier and Ron Garney-esque.  Strain’s work on colours also helps a lot, as she goes for darker hues with lots of reds and dark blues.

Daredevil #507 – Review

by Andy Diggle & Antony Johnston (writers), Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Matt’s conflict with Bakuto comes to a head while the Hand continues to pull the strings.

What’s Good: I’ve really come to love Marco Checchetto’s artwork, particularly as it works in tandem with Hollingsworth’s colors.  The book looks unique in Marvel’s line, equal turns gritty and polished.  I especially enjoyed Daredevil’s fight with hand ninja in the snow; it’s always interesting to see a darker style forced to work with a mostly white palette.  Seeing Daredevil’s red stand out against a white background and a horde of white adversaries works out great and is something different from the usual red on black.  The snowy, feudal Japanese landscape has been a nice change from Hell’s Kitchen and it has made the story feel fresh as a result.

Diggle and Johnston use this vibe to work their way towards telling another story where Matt finds himself in an impossible situation, only faintly aware of the danger surrounding him, manipulated on all sides.  Great Daredevil writers have often found success in putting Matt under tremendous strain and Diggle and Johnston are certainly moving in that direction.  We’re just heading into Shadowland, so it’s just yet a full-on pressure cooker, but already it’s beginning to feel suffocating.  Partially because of his being on alien, unfriendly territory and even moreso because of White Tiger’s betrayal, which he’s still unaware of, Matt Murdock seems completely isolated.

This is especially the case because Diggle and Johnston seem intent on delivering a clear message with this issue:  the most crippling, dangerous, and threatening enemies are those you can only ever, at best, suspect.  Even if they have yet to make their move, their planning and bad intentions alone make for something of a crushing narrative.  At issue’s end, there’s no doubt that the headfirst animosity of Bakuto is nothing compared the greater machinations of his peers.  Hell, Bakuto’s such a lesser evil that he’s almost a sympathetic character by comparison.

Daredevil #503 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Roberto De La Torre & Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Daredevil continues to use the Hand as an instrument to battle corruption.

What’s Good: I continue to enjoy Diggle’s take on Dark Reign, which remains one of the most unique in Marvel’s stable.  While most series simply have Osborn stomping about and occasional cameos by the Dark Avengers and/or the Thunderbolts, Diggle’s book best depicts how the world and society itself has changed thanks to Osborn’s rise.  Daredevil is used to occupying his own little corner of the Marvel Universe, and much of this issue is a wake-up call that even the farthest/lowest fringe of that Universe is subject to this major shift in status quo. The series’ own isolation stands in relation to Matt’s obliviousness to the larger state of things, absorbed as he is in his own crises.  Matt, and the comic itself, can now no longer ignore larger events, which do have an effect on Hell’s Kitchen, whether Matt realizes it or not.

While the theme is great, Diggle also writes some great dialogue this month.  The conversation between Daredevil and Izo was a particularly good.  Both men seem to be speaking in veiled threats and what seems to be the same old conversation we’ve heard a million times between the two takes on a tone of menace, where we’re forced to wonder who is trying to intimidate the other.  Is Izo getting impatient enough to threaten Matt?  Is Matt becoming inflated by his leadership of the Hand?  And which character is the initiator and which the respondent?  It’s a fascinating, multi-layered conversation that bears reading twice.

Other than that, the issue gives us everything we’ve come to expect from a good Daredevil comic.  Diggle writes the kinetic, thrilling action scenes that have been the signature of his career,  Kingpin is an absolute badass,  Becky, Foggy, and Dakota are as lovable as ever, and seeing Matt hold a pep rally for his horde of devil-horned ninjas definitely gets the blood pumping.  Meanwhile De La Torre continues to put out the best work of his career, as it’s clear that he was meant to draw this comic.  It’s shadowy, grimy, and gritty in the utmost, but with no loss of detail or clarity.  It’s quite the achievement, and he makes action and dialogue scenes equally engaging.